EU mulls mandatory ban on using Huawei to build 5G

The European Union is considering a mandatory ban on member-states using companies that might pose a security risk in their 5G networks, including China’s Huawei Technologies Co Ltd.

The move comes as a response to increasing concerns in Brussels about certain national governments delaying action on the matter, the officials told the newspaper.

In 2020, the EU said member-states can either restrict or exclude high-risk 5G vendors such as Huawei from core parts of their telecoms network, and resisted pressure back then from Washington for an outright ban on Chinese telcos.

In a meeting last Friday, the EU’s internal market commissioner Thierry Breton informed telecoms ministers that only a third of EU countries had implemented Huawei bans in critical areas, the report said.

As guidance fell short of a ban in 2020, EU could introduce a mandatory ban on companies deemed to present a security risk, should member-states such as Germany continue to delay, the newspaper added.

Germany has been considering banning certain components from Chinese companies Huawei and ZTE in its telecoms network, a government source told Reuters in March, in a potentially significant move to address security concerns. Reuters